Why I Support Mark McClain for OpenStack Neutron PTL

I am biased. I admit it. Mark McClain is a friend and a fellow Yahoo. I think he is doing a good job as the current OpenStack Neutron PTL and he deserves another 6 month term. That being said, I have many friends in this business and they are all good people. There are no bad guys in this picture, only differing views. I do have a few points to make as why Mark is still the best choice for the OpenStack Neutron PTLWe have few outlets for vendor neutral network development. As vendors shift and jockey for position, we need a safe place to grow the open source ecosystem. Maintaining balance between the network vendors serves the entire networking community. OpenDaylight serves part of that open source need, but we need a truly neutral place for network development. OpenStack is that neutral place. We have a good balance between vendors of the OpenStack Neutron core reviewers right now. I strongly suggest we maintain it.

I suggest that we continue to prioritize fixing bugs over new features. The last 6 months have been leading away from vendor focused features and towards stability. We need a stable Neutron for a strong OpenStack community. Vendors will always have a place, but we cannot allow a few vendors to dominate OpenStack. It runs counter to what we have been working towards.

Mark has been working toward Neutron parity with Nova network. This work is critical for the success of OpenStack. He is close to the goal of Nova Network parity with the Distributed Virtual Routing project. As we roll into the OpenStack Juno summit, you should check into the progress that is being made.

Let’s support Mark McClain as the OpenStack Neutron PTL, so he can continue the good work he has started.